On Sunday morning, after about 4 hours of sleep, Chipmunk woke and looked pretty pale. She had a headache, a fever but said that she didn’t feel sick to her stomach. Her back was still sore where she had pulled a muscle during the violent vomiting. We went into Walmart and picked up some Gatorade G3 Recover to help replace her fluids. Then we headed to the Red Roof Inn in Johnson City, TN about 20 minutes north of where we stayed the night. As soon as we checked into the room, Chocolate Chip jumped up on the bed, re-arranged the pillows and got comfortable. Once Chipmunk laid on the bed, Chocolate Chip made her way to her mom and cuddled up to help her recover. Chipmunk watched t.v. and since she hadn’t vomited in 12 hours and held down all the fluids, we let her have a little jello. She held that down and said she felt better but she still had a fever. By late evening, she said she was hungry and her fever had leveled off so we let her have a roll and a piece of cheese.

This morning, she work up and said she had a good night of sleep and felt better. We still aren’t letting her hike today because we know she needs to regain her strength before going out and hiking the next section which is 13 miles long. We believe she’ll resume her hike tomorrow, depending on how well she handles today’s ZERO day.

Thanks to everyone who sent the personal messages to Chipmunk and us; we appreciate your concern.

Check out “Chipmunk’s Pics” tab (on www.ridethenation.org) for a better look at what she sees while out on the trail. On youtube.com, her username is OpenlyMountainGoat if you want to check out any amateur video of her hike; we just started that account and will be adding more video soon.

We are trying to build support and maybe even get some sponsors to help in the expenses of Chipmunk’s quest to become the youngest solo thru hiker to complete the Appalachian Trail. We could use your help. If you enjoy reading the story of our adventure, and you’d like to send a donation, you can do so via the “donate” button at the top right side of this blog and we’ll be glad to treat Chipmunk to something special with the “trail magic” you send. Feel free to forward our website link (or email updates) to your family, friends, co-workers, etc, (www.ridethenation.org). Chipmunk maintains a twitter account: @openlymtngoat where a common hashtag is #GoChipmunk and she can receive personal messages directly to her email: openlymountaingoat@gmail.com. She or we (eventfultw@yahoo.com) will try to answer any questions you may have about her hike and this family adventure.

Thanks again for all your support, Mama Chip, Papa Chip, Chipmunk and her dog, Chocolate Chip(Tammy, Jay, Neva and Coco)